Shifting Sands uses the author's real-life experience across the Sahara Desert as a metaphor for our journeys through difficult times in our lives. Steve Donahue skillfully intersperses the true tale of his sometimes harrowing adventure with reflective passages that relate his experience to the challenges we all face. "We had no vehicle. We didn't know how or if we would continue heading south. I was in a vast, seemingly endless desert. I didn't know when or if we'd make it to the other side. I didn't even know where the other side was. It wasn't in Algeria. I knew that much. Was it in Niger? Where does the Sahara actually end?" We live in a culture, Donahue write, which loves "climbing mountains." We want to see the peak, map out a route, and follow it to the top. Sometimes this approach works, but not always, particularly when we are enduing a personal crisis-divorce, job loss, addiction, illness, or death. We may not know exactly where we are going, how to get there, or even how we'll know we've arrived. And it's not just in times of crisis. There are many deserts in our lives, situations with no clear paths or boundaries. Finding a job is usually a mountain, but changing careers may be a desert. Having a baby is a mountain, especially for the mom. But raising a child is a desert. Battling with cancer is a mountain. Living with a chronic illness is a desert. In the desert, we need to follow different rules than we follow when conquering a mountain. We need to be more intuitive, more patient, more spontaneous. Donahue outlines six "rules to desert travel" that will help us discover our direction by wandering, find our own personal oasis and cross our self-imposed borders. "The sun appears like a silent explosion, a slow motion fireworks display dazzling the volcanic crags of the Hoggar. I stand up and walk to the path and begin descending to Klaus' car. I've made my decision. Tallis and I will travel, somehow, to Agadez. I don't have a logical explanation for my decision or a plan to get to the lost oasis. I know I am on the right journey-I am following my compass. Shifting Sands show us how to slow down, reflect and embrace the changes of life graciously, naturally and courageously.

Steve Donahue's profile page

Steve Donahue is a professional speaker, consultant and coach. He as addressed hundreds of corporations and tens of thousands of individuals on the subject of personal and organizational change. His clients include AT&T, IBM, Pillsbury, Proctor & Gamble, Bank of America, Ford and Volkswagen. He was a director of the Hoffmann Institute Canada for British Columbia from 1995-97, and is co-developer of the interactive CD-Rom entitled Shifting Sands.